Providing stomatitis care for companion animals

How is stomatitis identified, and how can it be treated? Naomi Hoyer, DVM, DAVDC, an associate professor of dentistry and oral surgery at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, provided insight about stomatitis, in a continuing education (CE) session at the 2026 Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX) in Orlando, Florida.¹ In an interview with dvm360 at VMX, Hoyer discussed how to distinguish the condition from other oral diseases and provided recommendations for stomatitis care in cats and dogs.

RELATED VIDEO: Reading the clinical signs of stomatitis

The following is a transcript of the video, lightly edited for clarity:

dvm360: How do you distinguish stomatitis from other oral diseases?

Naomi Hoyer, DVM, DAVDC: Usually where the inflammation is is the best place to distinguish it. So in cats, it's not just the gingiva, so not just the soft tissues that are next to the teeth. We're actually looking in the very far back of the mouth, that the hollow muscle folds and in dogs, for their variety of stomatitis that they get, we're looking at the mucosa, which is the lining on the insides of the cheeks, where that's contacting the teeth. That's actually one of the best places to locate stomatitis. So most people think of only looking at the teeth, but for stomatitis, we want to look at the rest of the mouth too.

dvm360: What are some current recommendations for care?

Hoyer:Well for cats, unfortunately, our best recommendation initially is still to take the teeth out. We don't really have a great way to manage this condition without removing teeth, so extractions are a very, very common first step. We also want to provide a lot of pain support, because these are very painful conditions. And then we have a series of medications that we can use in the postoperative period to help keep cats more comfortable. There are standard things like anti-inflammatory doses of steroids. And then there's some new things on the market, like, if you have a cat where you have taken out all the teeth and it hasn't quite resolved it, maybe consider stem cell use, if it's calicivirus-positive, maybe we test for calicivirus and think about whether something like molnupiravir would be appropriate. So lots of good things up and coming, but we always have to start with extractions.

For dogs, it's a little bit different. We can do a lot to help keep the teeth plaque free, and that will help the symptoms of stomatitis in dogs.

For more industry news and coverage of VMX, visit dvm360’s dedicated conference page to view articles and videos: dvm360.com/conference/vmx

Reference

Hoyer N. Stomatitis in cats and dogs: Tackling the inflammation! Presented at: Veterinary Meeting & Expo; Orlando, FL. January 17-21, 2026.